As the process for producing aromatic amide compounds that are used as a cyan coupler for color photographs, there have hitherto been known a process in which o-nitrophenol compounds are reduced in methanol to give o-aminophenol compounds and after removal of the solvent, the resultant o-aminophenol compounds are subjected to condensation with acid chloride compounds in acetic acid under the presence of sodium acetate (see, e.g., JP-A 62-73258); and a process in which o-aminophenol hydrochloride salts are allowed to react with acid chloride compounds in acetone under the presence of quinoline to give the aromatic amide compound in a yield of 37% (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 2,801,171).
However, these process have the following disadvantages: the former process requires complicated operations, e.g., solvent replacement with an acidic solvent such as acetic acid in the condensation reaction through amidation (hereinafter referred to as amidation condensation), and the latter process requires less available reagents such as quinoline. Further, these processes cannot provide aromatic amide compounds in a satisfactory yield.